Chapter 741: Chapter 741

Li Pin's progress in the Supreme Ladder challenge remained as slow as ever. The further he advanced, the longer he took.

After reaching the sixtieth step, the time he took exceeded an entire stellar year.

Yet, a sense of unease had washed over the crowd near the Supreme Ladder. Yun Lai, Liang Qiu, Wang Fuyun, Yu Xuexian, and the others who had witnessed the entire ordeal felt this most profoundly

Back when Li Pin had just passed the fifty-sixth step, the discussions that reached his ears from the other Astral Gods had gone .

"That's it? Humanity Sanctum went to such lengths for him?"

"And they even call him a Sacred Child? He's really not living up to the title."

"I'd be able to do the same too."

However, by the time Li Pin had reached the sixty-first step, the crowd's tone had shifted.

"So-so, barely met my lowest expectations."

"Like an old lady's feet-binding cloth—it's long, but there's always an end to end. This should be his limit."

"Considering he achieved this in less than two hundred stellar years, he can somewhat barely justify the Sacred Child title."

As time continued to pass, even though Li Pin's pace remained slow, the moment he completely stepped onto the sixty-sixth step of the Supreme Ladder, the tone of discussion among the Astral Gods had changed entirely.

"He reached the sixty-fifth step!? Such an achievement is enough to rank him among the top even within this generation in the Humanity Sanctum. He is truly deserving of the Sacred Child title!"

"Truly worthy of the name Prodigy Li! I've known all along that when Prodigy Li finally soared, it would shock the world! Remarkable!"

"In such a short time, he caught up with ninety-nine percent of the Humanity Sanctum's members. If anyone dares accuse that Sacred Child Li is all show and no substance, I'll be the first to object!"

"Who was the one who claimed that you'd be able to do the same? Why don't you go up there then!"

This wave of chatter lasted for a full two stellar years. Not a single Astral God made the decision to leave from this point on. In fact, the Astral God who had left earlier all returned to join the waiting crowd.

As long as Astral Gods didn't venture out to seek challenges or try to seek breakthroughs, their lifespans were essentially infinite. To witness a spectacle, they wouldn't mind spending ten years, decades, centuries, or even more.

Moreover, Li Pin himself was already a source of endless, almost legendary intrigue. Despite his relatively slow advance on the Supreme Ladder, he might just be able to create a miracle that would shock the world.

Naturally, those idle Astral Gods were not willing to miss out on such a spectacle.

Two and a half stellar years later, Li Pin appeared on the sixty-sixth step of the Supreme Ladder.

The instant he appeared, a wave of suppressed exclamations suddenly burst from the crowd.

"He passed it! He cleared the Supreme Ladder's sixty-sixth step!"

"Incredible! Unbelievable! The mighty Lord Li Pin has advanced to the sixty-sixth step! From this moment, the entire Supreme Ladder will shine because of him!"

"With this level of combat power, Sacred Child Li Pin is qualified to contend for the Dao Child title! If he didn't rely on a Cosmic Radiance Divine Weapon to reach this point, there's no doubt he'd be among the top twenty on the World Glory List!"

Cheers, mingled with shock, quickly resounded around the outer perimeter of the Supreme Ladder. The commotion was so intense that even Li Pin, who had just appeared from the Supreme Ladder, couldn't help glancing toward the crowd.

Wherever his gaze fell, almost everyone who noticed his gaze wore expressions of excitement and awe, with some even showing heartfelt reverence.

However, Li Pin, immersed in this feeling of rapid cultivation breakthroughs, did not linger for long. After emerging from the sixty-sixth step, he barely paused before stepping into the sixty-seventh step once again.

Wang Fuyun had been about to leap into the air and speak with Li Pin when he witnessed this, causing his movements to halt.

"He's gone in again! Is he confident he might even pass the sixty-seventh step!?"

"Sacred Child Li... Could he be aiming to charge up to the sixty-ninth step in one go?" ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel※fire.net

"If he really reaches the sixty-ninth step, that would be unbelievable. Across the entire Humanity Sanctum, only twenty people have reached that level. It would mean his maximum combat potential already ranks among the top twenty. When the Black List is updated, they'll probably have to reconsider his placement."

Yu Xuexian, Yun Lai, Liang Qiu, and the others all spoke up.

"Forget the sixty-ninth step, just with his sixty-sixth step achievement, it's enough to make the alien races reassess his ranking."

Wang Fuyun descended, exhaled deeply as he looked toward the Supreme Ladder, and said, "Don't forget, his cultivation time has yet to exceed two hundred stellar years. Even if he carries some power from the Eternal Oblivion, that doesn't hide the fact that his cultivation span is short. It's not surprising if his Black List rank enters the top eighty."

As soon as he said this, everyone's eyes widened.

"Top eighty!? Wouldn't that mean... he ranks even higher than Fan Jingtian and the rest!? When the list updates next, he'll shoot straight to second on the Starfire List?"

"Second... if not for the monstrous talent of Thousand Dust, in the previous and even the one before that, his achievements would have earned him the top spot without question."

Wang Fuyun sincerely said, "I had speculated that Li Pin would shine brightly and amaze the world after coming to the Humanity Sanctum. But I thought that day would take at least a hundred, or maybe even a thousand years. I didn't expect it to arrive so quickly..."

He paused, a touch of emotion and anticipation rising in his heart. "At this rate, within a hundred years, maybe just a few decades, the era of Luo Shenxi and the Four Giants will come to an end. The Humanity Sanctum will usher in the era of Li Pin."

A few decades or a century!

Even the Eternal Ascent of Humanity's prodigies only dared to proclaim being able to produce an Astral God in a hundred years, and a Solar Flare in a thousand. Yet, Wang Fuyun was now claiming that within decades, or a century, the era of Li Pin would begin!

This was simply... unbelievable!

At the sixty-seventh step.

Li Pin gathered all his focus.

This time, the battlefield was a continent spanning tens of millions of kilometers. Moreover, its material and energy structures were remarkably stable. If one were to move a boulder from here to the outside world, it could probably crush a planet.

Li Pin quickly made a precise assessment. "It's at least equivalent to the physical body of a Heavenly Emperor."

The Supreme Ladder was truly formidable. It was able to simulate an environment on par with a Heavenly Emperor's true body.

"The Supreme Ladder is excellent for perfecting control over one's state, but like the Primordial World, it lacks the stimulation of the inner spirit. In the end, a person knows, deep in their heart, that this is only a trial devoid of a life-and-death crisis, so it fails to ignite the heart's full potential. It isn't helpful for inner spirit cultivation."

It was just like how training grounds could improve skill proficiency but not provide any leveling experience.

It was extremely useful to verify what a person had learned, but to the Astral Gods who had reached their limits, it was nothing more than a tasteless chicken rib.

However, while the Supreme Ladder may not be flawless, its ability to simulate any opponent or environment made it a truly top-tier treasure.

As Li Pin surveyed the surroundings, the void ahead was suddenly torn apart.

In the next moment, a sword light struck with speed that transcended space. The distortion of space and time it carried gave the illusion of confronting a Heavenly Emperor.

While the sword light only gave the illusion of confronting a Heavenly Emperor, its owner was a Heavenly Emperor's personal disciple!

The opponent conjured by the sixty-seventh step had actually reached the level of a Heavenly Emperor's personal disciple.

To some extent, it even rivaled a Heavenly Emperor before their rise to the Cosmic Radiance phase.

Fortunately, Li Pin was in a state of full alert at that moment. As the sword descended, he sensed it instinctively and flung out a stroke of Quantum Sword Intent.

However, against this test opponent comparable to a young Heavenly Emperor, his Quantum Sword Intent failed for the first time. Just as the Quantum Sword Intent was about to collapse the void, it seemed to freeze for a brief instant.

In less than a tenth of a second, the sword light bypassed the obstruction of the Quantum Sword Intent and stabbed directly toward Li Pin.

The radiant, dazzling sword light filled the entire world before his eyes.

Li Pin quickly realized he wouldn't be able to block the sword light unless he used the Ruoxi sword!

The reason he had spent over a dozen stellar years on the Supreme Ladder was precisely to temper himself through its power. If he relied on external items, how could he achieve the goal of tempering himself?

In an instant, he entered the Limit Break state, the strongest Limit Break state he could sustain. As the Quantum Sword Intent was released, the space before him seemed to be torn apart in one stroke, allowing him to perform a miraculous movement akin to a Sacred Monarch traversing the void.

Just as the sword was about to pierce through him, he forcibly shuttled out from beneath the blade.

Even so, the energy contained in that sword still shattered his Divine Body. One-tenth of his divine body was reduced to ashes.

Before Li Pin had time to react, the simulated opponent twisted their body at an incredible speed. Then, the opponent merged with its sword and attacked once more.

The opponent's reaction speed accentuated that his and Li Pin's understanding of time wasn't even on the same level. Li Pin existed in an accelerated world, whereas his opponent saw everything in slow motion.

Unable to turn the situation around, Li Pin was forced to disturb space with his Quantum Sword Intent once more to escape the sword's domain.

However, in doing so, he only fell into greater danger.

At this rate, as time went on, his disadvantage would grow larger and larger until the simulated disciple ended him with one unavoidable strike.

Li Pin was pleased at this discovery.

He had finally hit his limit!

With the help of the Supreme Ladder, he had finally concluded where his current limits were!

Without using his Cosmic Radiance Divine Weapon or entering the Great Dao Radiance state, his true limit lay at the sixty-sixth step of the Supreme Ladder.

Now that he knew where his limit was, the next step for him was to... break the limit! Surpass the limit! Exhaust the cycle of reincarnation!

Endless Reincarnation Secret Art....

Li Pin had yet to perfect the Endless Reincarnation Secret Art, but as a Supreme Secret Art, its power far outstripped techniques like the Quantum Sword Intent at its current mastery.

As the secret art unfolded, a ripple appeared in Li Pin's inner spirit lake. Faintly, beneath that ripple, it seemed a figure opened its eyes and looked toward him, just like how he had once gazed toward the future in the past.

The instant the two met, the future he had once envisioned in the past became the present.

Illusion and fog silently dispersed, and speculation became a tangible reality.

It was as if his true self stepped out from the illusory gaze of the past.